An approach to ensuring sustainable operation of mining companies by adapting parameters of the mining system to changing external and internal factors

Surface mining of mineral deposits is characterized by increasingly complex mining-geological and mining-engineering conditions, against a backdrop of high volatility in prices and demand for the raw materials produced. To offset negative factors and ensure sustainable operation of mining companies, it is essential to periodically update organizational and technological plans for developing the mineral deposit by adjusting parameters of the mining system. For this purpose, the study examines an engineering solution for organizing and creating areas within the open-pit mine’s working zone with design parameters adapted for utilization of low-power equipment, including hydraulic excavators with the bucket capacity of up to 5–6 m³. The paper demonstrates the impact of geometric specifications of the hydraulic excavators on the parameters of the mining system. The authors discovered that as the geometric (linear) parameters and the unit output of the hydraulic excavators increase, their absolute output increases, while their specific output per 1 m³ of the bucket capacity decreases. Accordingly, the efficiency of excavating a block using excavators with smaller bucket capacities will be higher than when using excavators with larger bucket capacities, provided that the total bucket capacity of all the excavators being compared is equal. For a number of ore and coal deposits, the proposed engineering solution allows for flexible control of the open-pit output, the range of commercial products and services, as well as the quality and volume of the reserves involved in mining, even in conditions of changing external and internal factors.